Industrial reels and spools used to support material convoluted thereabout become dirty in time as material is wound onto and off of the reels. For example, aluminum reels used to carry fibers, like that used in manufacturing tires, become dulled and solid with use. Such reels may be cleansed, as with heated chlorinated hydrocarbon solvents like perchloroethylene, and brightened with acid. However, to clean large numbers of reels by submerging them in cleansing solutions and then thoroughly rinsing them, such must be done on an automated basis for efficiency and economy of operations.
Heretofore, procedures and apparatuses have been devised for cleaning articles by submerging them in succession in a series of vats or open top tanks that house different cleansing agents. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 797,298 discloses apparatus for cleaning and sterilizing bottles in which the bottles are mounted upon a conveyor belt that passes through a series of tanks along a serpentine path. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,894,197 workpieces are passed successively through a series of tanks while supported upon carriers driven by an endless conveyor over the top of the tanks that raise and lower the workpieces into each tank as it is positioned thereabove.
The just described types of systems and methods for cleansing bottles that may be placed snuggly together, and workpieces supported upon platforms, are not readily adaptable for use in cleaning reels. Individual reels could be upended upon their flanges and supported upon platforms, but such would normally require manual labor for loading and unloading. Also, many reels have axial projections or rounded flanges which renders it difficult to support them in an upended configuration. To support the reels upon the edges of their annular flanges would require the use of restraining means to hold them in place. Such would also tend to leave their area of support contact not adequately cleansed.
Accordingly, it is seen that a need remains for methods and apparatuses for cleaning reels, spools and the like on an automated basis. It is to the provision of such methods and apparatuses that the present invention is therefore primarily directed.